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Bath’s new MP cast her first vote in Parliament last night in favour of lifting the pay cap on public sector workers.

Wera Hobhouse backed Labour’s amendment to the Queen’s speech, which called for an end to the one per cent public sector pay cap.

Mrs Hobhouse, who won the Bath seat for the Liberal Democrats earlier this month, was voting in the House of Commons for the first time.

The vote was defeated by just 14. After the vote Mrs Hobhouse said the money offered to the Democratic Unionist Party by the Conservatives earlier this week could have “been much better spent on our nurses, police and firemen”.

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Mrs Hobhouse said: "The people who care for us and protect us in these troubled times need to be valued and rewarded, not punished by more reductions in their spending power.

"They have lost out heavily over the last four years because of the one per cent cap, and with inflation running at 2.9 per cent, mainly because of Brexit, you don't need to be a genius to work out the price they are paying.

"We couldn’t put a stop to that because of the grubby little deal the Tories did with the DUP to help Mrs May cling to power. It wasn’t nice watching that unholy alliance celebrating their success in extending the time our public sector workers are cruelly punished for doing a great job for us.